Monday, May 6, 2013

Mother’s Day is coming up, and since so many of you brave
souls will be attempting a celebratory brunch, I thought I’d post this
much-requested lemon bars recipe, in case things don’t go as smoothly as anticipated.

Preparing brunch can be tricky anytime, let alone under mom’s watchful (aka
“extremely concerned”) eyes. Can someone please get her a mimosa and walk her
into the garden?

So, even if a few poached eggs break, or the toast gets a
little too golden-black, no worries! If you finish the meal with these
gorgeous, and absolutely impossible to mess-up lemon bars, she'll be as proud
as she will be impressed. Our moms may have taught us the importance of a good first
impression, but its America’s restaurateurs who discovered the importance of a
delicious last impression. There's nothing like a well made pastry tomake one forgive a tough steak.

Other than a baking dish, there’s no special equipment or
techniques required. Both the shortbread base and the lemon custard take only
minutes, and are simply hand-mixed in a bowl.

Basically, if you can move your arm
in a circle, and effectively set a timer (there’s one on your phone), your
lemon bars should look just as good as these (maybe better – see meringue note
below). Anyway, whether you’re going to make these for Mother’s Day or not, I
hope you give them a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 16 Small Lemon Bars:

For the shortbread crust:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup room temp unsalted butter (1 stick)

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

Bake crust at 350 degrees F. for 22 minutes

For the lemon layer:

2 large whole eggs

1 large egg yolk

1 cup white sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1 tbsp grated lemon peel

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 25 minutes

Garnish with powdered sugar; or top with *meringue (the extra
egg white whipped with 1 tablespoon of sugar) and brown with torch.

*My MeringueIf you decide to turn these into lemon meringue bars, do yourself a favor and actually measure the sugar. I couldn’t be bothered to check a recipe, so I only tossed in a teaspoon of sugar, and it should be closer to a tablespoon. The technique is the same; beat the extra white to the ribbon stage (where drips of white stay on the surface for a few seconds), and then add the sugar and continue whipping until you have nice, glossy peaks. My “by eye” batch worked fine, but it was a little too dry, and not quite sticky enough. Be advised.View the complete recipe

To everyone looking to ask about browning the meringue... Yes, you can brown it in the oven. Just move your oven rack to the top and then broil it for 30 second to 1 minute. Just keep an eye on it and take it out when it's browned.

I'm making these for mother's day for sure!! As a poor college student, I usually don't have all the ingredients necessary for some recipes. But this is so dang simple! Who's about to be the favorite child again?! THIS GIRL!

Hello Chef John! I have a question regarding the "crust" (cookie) portion of this recipe... mine came out very crumbly and powdery... even though I mixed very thoroughly... I did have to cook it a bit longer as my lemon layer was a bit thick. Could that have been the reason for the crumbly/powdery-ness? Thank you!

Hi Chef John, I'm definitely making these for mother's day! Just 1 question though. Your recipe requires 1/2 cup or 1 stick of butter. Is that 250g? Seems like more than 1/2 cup. Sorry if this is a dumb question :(

Chef John, why does you 8x8 baking dish looks so much bigger than mine 8x8 baking dish? I tied making your mint brownies recipe and my brownies came out really thick, not like the thin ones you have in your video.

Hi Chef John, made it yesterday and just tasted it, it's awesome, definitely a recipe to repeat! Even though I switched things up a little, used whole wheat flour and brown sugar because it was what I had at home.

I made these with my daughter tonight, but our lemon portion of the bar was much less than in your video. We followed the measurements exactly, but they came out 75% cookie to 25% lemon mixture. The taste was still good, but were very dry because of the dense crust. (We did use an 8x8 pan.) Anyone else have this problem?

Hello Chef John, I'm Yasmina and I'm from Spain. Since a few month I follow you amazing blog. It's an inspiration for me and I'm just a student that take pleasure in your meals. This lemons bars will serve to surprise my friends (We're a students, like I tell before, and We don't cook too much, We haven't enough time!!) Sooo... the question why I write you for the first time It's to thank you for putting so much effort into each of your meals and show us. I learned too much with you!!

@Rob, had a similar issue, not sure why I followed the measurements exactly as well and my cookie was much thicker than the ones you see in the video/picture. I think maybe he did some camera trickery or something?

Hi Chef John. I've tried 2 times to make this recepie and with 1 stick of butter (mine was 100g) the whole crust became a sticky mess and took a lot longer to cook and didn't even looked like your. What could have gone wrong?Thank you!

I never do any camera trickery since that wouldn't be too smart for something that thousands of people will reproduce. Having said that, it hard to see in the pictures since the lemon top smears into the shortbread cookie when these are cut or bitten. This is a cookie, not a pie, so the ratio of lemon to cookie is about 50/50. There should be just as much shortbread as filling basically. Also, the bottom is never going to me pressed in perfectly even, so you will get some think and thin spots.

Made these, and just wanted to issue a warning to those who try the broiler method.. mine burned in 15 seconds. Luckily, it was such a thin layer that we couldn't taste it at all, it just affected the presentation, which everyone couldn't help but rib me about. Oh well. They did taste absolutely delicious, and they were a breeze to make! Also, this was my first time whipping up a meringue!

Hi again! I never said that you did any camera trickery, I was only wandering why mine went wrong. But I think may be the butter that melted during the process... I don't know. Sorry if I've ofended you in any way...

Made this yesterday..i think I overcooked the shortbread crust slightly because i didnt realize my oven rack was near the bottom coil.. but other than that this was so delicious.. perfect recipe..so easy and foolproof.. i used lemon and lime juice/zest.. thank you so much chef John! will definetely make again and add my own twist! You touch our lives in such simple and meaningful ways Chef John, thank you!!

Thanks Chef John. I had some meyer lemons that were really close to being composted that instead made nice lemon bars. I just couldn't get any zest off of them because they had gone soft. I had to resist the temptation to put the zester to a plastic lemon in the back of the fridge.

Hello Chef John. I'm always enjoying your wonderful recipes. They are always wonderful. I have a question though. I want to substitute virgin coconut oil for butter when making the shortbread. Is the conversion 1:1? I heard you should use 90% coconut oil and 10% liquid because butter has a lot of liquid.

Hi chef! Thanks for the awesome tutorial and recipe! Lemon bars is a good change in mothers day :) what can i use as a substitute for the white egg then blowtorched on the top? Because i dont own a blowtorch...

Hi Chef John, I tried your recipe today and everything look like it was coming out perfect, except when i pulled the bars out of the oven after baking the top was a golden brown. There was no white sugary crust. Any idea what may have happened?

Hey Chef John just wanted to say I love all your recipes and I've been watching for the past year in which I've made these bars about a dozen times since my family loves them so much. The only thing is everytime I make them the top comes out golden brown instead of white and sugary. Do you know why this might be happening? Thanks!

Chef just made these about an hour ago. FANTASTIC RECIPEI FORGOT and melted the butter but all I did was add it gradually to the flour and sugar mixture and continued to follow directions CORRECTLY. And I just taste 1/4 of a corner. #WOW#LEMONWOW#AWESOME